Fall of the Cities: Putting Down Roots

by Vance Huxley

  “Harold, Harold!” Harold fought himself up from sleep, a really deep sleep because he slept like that now. Or he had done for six straight nights.

  “Hazel?”

  “Liz is downstairs. Don’t use the radios but be really quick.” No radios, so gang or Army. Harold and Holly untangled and regardless of stereotypes she dressed as fast as Harold.

  Liz started talking before Harold got to the bottom of the stairs. “Kill them Harold, they took Matti.”

  “Who took Matti, where?” Harold threw on his leather coat and unlocked the study to collect his rifle and a pocket full of ammo. Holly followed him and collected hers and a box of two-two ammo. A rattle of gunfire sounded towards the city. “What the hell is that?”

  “That means Emmy and the rest were quick enough, I hope. They must’ve caught up but there’s only eight gone in case it’s a trick. Casper is walking the boundary. We’re checking and so far we’re missing Liam, Jon, and Willtoo and there was another and then there’s Matti.” Liz sighed. “Doll swears Matti can’t have gone willing, and they killed Sandy and took guns.”

  “How did they get out with Matti?”

  “We’ll find out. Just get her back and we’ll let you know if there’s anyone else missing.” Liz pushed at him but Harold had already started moving, quickly.

  His radio crackled. “E3 medic.” That sounded like Emmy.

  More firing sounded out in the ruins so Harold called “Medic E3, quickly” over his shoulder and kept moving, running now. The distinctive boom of the 303 echoed in the night so Alfie or Emmy had taken it. Tim and Curtis were waiting at the wall, and Harold told them to escort Lenny the medic to whoever had been wounded. Conn and Lillian were joined by Finn, then Philip, one of the new refugees, and Harold clicked the radio. “Numbers please.”

  “F4 and there’s five we think.” A storm of gunfire broke out, and the 303 again. “Four.”

  “Coming.” Harold looked round. “We are going fast and cutting the corner because they are curving towards the Hot Rods.”

  Lilian stopped. “I’m too slow. Take Tim and I’ll guard Lenny and get the wounded.”

  “Done. Come on.” Harold didn’t wait to make big plans, just headed for where the escapees would hit the border if they kept going.

  Twice a rattle of gunfire broke out and after the second the radio crackled again. “G5. Three left.” Even as Harold closed in a prolonged burst of gunfire lit up the houses not far ahead. The radio spoke clearly, and Harold could hear the bitterness in Emmy’s tones. “Two got away. The Hot Rods are shooting this way and we had to take cover.”

  “Anyone hit?”

  “Cuts and bruises. How soon?”

  “A couple of minutes.” Harold headed for where the flashes had come from and he soon spotted a set of fairy glows. Someone had hung them from a wall so anyone coming from Orchard Close would see them. “I see fairies.”

  “Come ahead.” As he came nearer Harold saw a waving arm. Emmy waited with Doll, an absolutely livid Doll.

  “Shoot them. The Hot Rods. Kill them Harold. They let the bastard get away.”

  Harold ignored that for now to talk to Emmy. “Where’s Matti?”

  “Back there, safe but shaken up. Have they found Sal and Bernie yet?” Harold shook his head and Emmy sighed. “The bastards put a knife to Sal, and Bernie gave up how to make pipe bombs. One of those who escaped is Jon and the other one is a mystery. He must have met this lot outside the boundary wall.” Emmy brandished the 303. “I reckon he’s a Hot Rod and I want to kill them as well for shooting this way. We had to duck or I’d have nailed Jon at least. We’ve got two of ours with bullet wounds but those were from before we got here.”

  “You said cuts and bruises.”

  “I left Seth to guard Matti, and the two wounded went back there. That leaves me with only five people and possibly outnumbered so I kept my big mouth shut.” Emmy sighed. “Sorry, that came out a bit sharp. This is planned I reckon because Lemmy ran towards the Hot Rods as we were coming up. He shouted ‘it’s me, Lemmy’ but they opened up and killed him anyway. While we were ducking Jon got away, and our mystery man.”

  “Good enough. Now let’s see what the Hot Rods say. Organise these four to cover wherever you want them.” Harold raised his voice and shouted towards the border. “Who’s in charge over there?”

  “Cooper. Is that you Soldier Boy? We just shot a runner from your lot.”

  “Good. Now hand over the other two.”

  “Other two? One of our blokes had nipped over the border to see what the fuss was about and came running back. We didn’t see anyone else. Who was it?”

  “His name is Jon and either you hand him back or he gets a lead headache one day soon. Unless you are altering the rules and if so I can find all of you long before you get home.” Harold used the little glasses from the Geek gunman and could see moving figures.

  “Maybe not. You missed a few tonight.”

  The 303 had fired five times and Cooper thought that was Harold’s gun. “Not me, I’ve passed that one to an apprentice. I’ve got a new one.”

  Harold listened to some muttering, too faint to understand, then Cooper shouted again. “Bullshit. It’s a poser job and got no ammo.”

  “It’s got really good sights and a hell of a range. Pick one of your blokes, just point to him. Be sure to tell Cadillac you gave me permission to shoot him so you could hear the difference. Left eye or right?” Behind him someone murmured ‘macho bullshit’ and sniggered.

  “No, but I will tell Cadillac what you said. I’m sure he’ll send any runners back.” Someone over there muttered. “What about the one we shot? Do we get the body?”

  “Yes, once we’ve stripped it.” Harold turned back and the murmuring from behind him had been from Alfie. “Alfie, will you organise two people and strip that body naked. It’s got something Cooper wants.” He raised his voice again. “If anyone accidentally points a weapon this way while he’s being stripped, I’ll accidentally kill them.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Tell you what, to avoid accidents we’ll pull back.” There were raised voices in the buildings ahead and Harold saw moving figures. Soon afterwards engines started and vehicles drove away.

  *   *   *

  A grim group trudged back in the darkness, stripping the other two bodies on the way. Even a radio message confirming that everyone else had arrived home and Bernie and Sal were okay didn’t cheer anyone up, nor the news that nobody else seemed to be missing. Betrayal cut deep, because Liam had been with the original escapees from the flats, and Jon had fought well to defend Orchard Close when the mob closed. Doll muttered and kept looking back and Harold moved closer. “We can’t start a war Doll.”

  “But Jon got away and he’s a bad one, maybe the worst. The bastard wanted me as well.”

  “What happened?”

  “Willtoo called by and said Jon had a present for me, and Liam had one for Matti, and could we call round to get them. Usual stupid prank we thought but Matti said she’d go and see what the silly sods had got.” Doll sighed. “It’s our own fault really. This place is too nice, too safe, and we’d started the same games we played at home. Winding blokes up a bit. Though it was the old habits that saved Matti.”

  “What habits?”

  “We used to go to dances and have fun and sometimes the blokes thought we were up for it. Then we’d stop snogging and point over the car park. Oh no, Dad’s arrived.” She sighed. “We relied on Dad being there, bless him.” Doll stayed silent for a few steps but Harold waited. Talking seemed to calm Doll down a bit, taking the edge off her sheer rage. “It was the other habit saved Matti. If we met a nice fella and wanted to get a little bit more personal, we always told each other. You know, I’ll be in the kitchen, give me five minutes or however long?”

  “Five minutes?”

  Harold could hear just a little humour in Doll’s reply. “Well very occasionally a bit longer if we really liked a bloke but not if we’d just met. Five
minutes is enough to get ruffled and breathless. Christ, are you a priest or what? I’m confessing!”

  “Only once.”

  “Cripes, sorry. Heard about that.” Doll sighed. “Anyway, Matti said she’d be fifteen minutes, more as a habit I think. By twenty I was out of the door because Jon had to be told no very firmly sometimes and that’s why I didn’t go. Matti thinks Liam is sweet because he’s shy, which is why she did go. Thought. Was shy. Nobody answered the door so I bust a window.” Doll sighed again, Harold preferred that to getting more angry. “I dithered a bit first, worrying about replacing the glass, but no-one had answered. Not even Matti telling me to sod off.”

  After a dozen silent paces Harold prompted her. “And?”

  “Empty. When I got to Jon’s room, well here, his note.” Her hand pushed a piece of crumpled paper into Harold’s. “A real piece of filth though I barely started reading because then I knew.” Doll sobbed. “They’d taken Matti someplace. I started shouting and ran to get a gun.” She sobbed again, Holly’s arm came around her and Emmy spoke from Harold’s other side.

  “Doll went to get a gun from Sandy and found him dead and the gun store open. Since she screamed blue murder all the way anyone nearby got roused.” Emmy’s voice sounded tight with anger. “By then they were over the wall but only just going into the ruins and we set straight off. Matthew in the guard house had let them go when Jon called in to explain.” Emmy took a few silent steps but Harold didn’t interrupt. “We do that sometimes, use the wall to go and set traps or something similar rather than piss about with all the bars on the door. Jon told Matthew they were going for night-time pistol practice, and everyone knows we need to try that.”

  “That’s always planned so we know what the shots are.”

  “There’s no list up and Jon let Matthew know, so he thought you’d agreed. It’s eating both him and Bess because he actually saw Matti going over the open ground in the group. It was dark so he wasn’t sure who the woman was, and she had a scarf up over her mouth but its chilly early morning and so did two of the others.” Emmy sighed. “Matthew and Bess pushed too far ahead and Matthew’s been shot again. Bess nearly blew Willtoo to bits for that, put a whole clip into him.”

  “Bloody stupid name that.”

  “Not a problem now. Blame the girl club’s fault for it. When your Wills met Will he said you’re a Will too and someone thought it funny.” Emmy shook her head angrily. “How did we miss it, Harold? I would have trusted any of them with my back. Hell, we all have now and then on guard or in a fight.”

  “Blame Cadillac. He found a weak link someplace. Jon got upset about Sal dumping him after New Year, and I heard some sort of ruckus after the Easter dance. Something little like that got blown up.” Harold felt bloody sure this had been orchestrated by Cadillac because the fifth man, a Hot Rod, must have been waiting out here and Cooper didn’t hang about at night on the border just for fun.

  “The ruckus as you call it was Lemmy. He ended up walking Liz home and no kiss to teach him a lesson. He got a bit pushy and hands-on with Suzie after the previous dance so he drew a blank this time.” Emmy sniggered. “Suzie says she doesn’t mind a little bit of hands-on if the bloke is nice about it and works up slowly but he was an arse, so she traded for Billy.”

  “Even that could have been enough if he had already been got at, especially if Billy said something, wound him up when he got back.” Harold looked around. “Did Bess go back with Matthew?”

  “No, I needed guaranteed shooters. She’s over there at the end beyond Billy, keeping her head down.” Emmy pointed. “He’s feeling guilty because he went to visit Gayle and Suzie.”

  “I’ll go and tell her it’s my fault if anyone’s, for not making shooting practice more formal and Army-like. Then I’ll tell Billy they would have just waited for another time or stuck a knife in him.” Harold turned but Emmy put a hand on his arm.

  “Billy is mad as hell and I thought he was going to charge the Hot Rods. But before that.” Her voice dropped. “Can you really shoot out eyes in the dark with that new rifle?”

  Harold chuckled, the first bit of humour since he woke up. “No, but I want Cadillac to get a message. With luck we’ll get Jon back.”

  “Heh. I won’t tell anyone. Liz always says she doesn’t want to play cards with you and I don’t, not now.” Emmy waved him away. “Go on, give Bess her hug.”

  “My hugs are spoken for, but all the bedrest Matthew will need might do the trick for Bess.”

  “He’s only hit in… Oh, yes.” Harold did end up with his arm around Bess as she apologised several times before agreeing that anyone else would have done the same. Whether she’d ever believe that was anyone’s guess.

  *   *   *

  When Harold arrived back in Orchard Close a distraught Matti couldn’t or wouldn’t wait. She wanted to explain and apologise at once, and didn’t seem to know which. Either way Harold just let her get it said, so she could relax a bit. Though since the whole affair seemed to have started with Matti going to see Liam, maybe Harold could get the complete story and some hint of a why. Since Matti told him in public, with Doll and half a dozen others present, she also answered a lot of other peoples’ questions about what the hell had really happened.

  “I’m sorry Harold. It’s my own stupid fault. I shouldn’t have gone, or I should have shouted right at the start. They gagged me and Lemmy had a gun against me over the wall and as we walked away. I thought if I went along but slow, dragged my feet, they wouldn’t kill me and I might escape or be rescued. At worst I’d survive, you know, what they did, until I got a chance to get away.” Matti shuddered. “That stranger wanted to cut my throat before they left me. Liam said no, he stayed until last to make sure they didn’t.” Which was probably why Liam had been killed first but Matti didn’t need that news just now.

  “It’s not your fault. You were set up from the sounds of it. Neither Sal nor Bernie shouted either.” Harold tried for a good side. “They missed getting Doll as well or it might have been worse.”

  “Lemmy and Willtoo both wanted Doll because they couldn’t get to Suzie. Jon wanted to take Sal but Bernie said no. He said if they tried to gag or tie him or Sal they’d both scream the place down.” Matti shuddered again. “Jon really wanted Sal but the others wouldn’t risk the noise. In the end Bernie gave up the bomb stuff as a deal for both to be locked in a wardrobe.” The first ghost of a smile appeared. “It was the only way to shut them up without gags. Jon and Lemmy were heaping the bedroom furniture against the doors when a window broke. Then they just wanted to get away before any alarm was raised.”

  “You were there with them all the time? Did anyone say anything about a plan, whose idea it was?”

  “No Harold, no names. Jon and Lemmy talked about a reward when Liam and the new youth, Willtoo, got a bit wobbly. A reward for the guns and another for the pipe bombs, how to make them. They all wrote the pipe bomb stuff down and carried it. If I hadn’t been gagged I reckon there were a couple of moments I could have talked Liam out of it.” Matti shivered and hugged Doll. “Maybe not after one of them killed Sandy. That was Jon or Lemmy.” She glared at Harold. “I want to see Jon die. If he gets handed back I’ll pull the trigger, I swear. I’ll pull one whenever you want now Harold, because never again. I want him, Harold.”

  “If I can, Matti.” Harold left her with a mix of older women and the girl club, and visited the wounded, then Sal and Bernie. After that he tried to persuade various people apologies weren’t necessary, or that he couldn’t go over the border and shoot job lots of Hot Rods. He also persuaded Billy he couldn’t go over himself and do it. As dawn broke Harold kissed Holly and went to sort out the last job.

  “Hello the Army.”

  “Coat off and turn slowly.”

  “Can I put the coat back on?”

  “No, leave it there and walk up very slowly. Do not make any sudden moves.” Harold knew from the voice there’d been a change up here, and this one didn’t
sound very friendly. He walked up very, very slowly.

  “Stand very still.” Harold would because there were four rifles rock steady on his chest. A gaunt, hard-faced man with a little grey on his temples had replaced the usual sergeant. “We will use a wand and search you.” A soldier came over and searched Harold thoroughly even after the wand. Harold wasn’t offering chips and beer to this lot because the women wouldn’t stand for that sort of search. “Right. What do you want?”

  “We are having a funeral later today, a pyre. I came to ask permission to spread the ashes on the exclusion zone.”

  “No.”

  “May I explain?”

  “You can try but it’s an exclusion zone. I don’t care where dead gangsters go, as long as it’s not there.”

  “The dead man is a fifty-six year old arthritic who was stabbed in the night by a thief. The thief can rot for all I care but Sandy deserves better. I explained to the previous soldiers that we don’t want the animals to piss on our dead. If you shoot someone so they bleed on the ashes, our dead might appreciate it.”

  “I’m still not convinced. The last sergeant said you are decent people but I lost two men to supposedly decent people. I really don’t like the idea of someone inside the exclusion zone.”

  “May I point?” Harold wasn’t making any sudden moves today. The sergeant nodded and he pointed to the row of tiny markers, fifteen feet inside the exclusion signs. “Each of those is for someone we lost. We are asking for one person to spread the ashes and put in a marker. We’ve got no priests down here, and we have to burn our friends on a pyre, so at least let us put the ashes in a safe place.” Harold really didn’t want the dead anywhere else but didn’t know what else to say. Putting the ashes safe comforted some people.

  “One woman. Tight jeans and tight top which won’t be a hardship for your type, and she makes no threatening moves.”

  “Take a look at how our women dress before saying that about them, please. How about a woman who had an arm shot off by some scroat six weeks ago? Sandy tried to make her a new forearm so she’ll do it. Give her a bit of time though because she’s still not well.” Harold stopped and took a breath because he’d nearly messed up then. These soldiers wouldn’t like either bitterness or sarcasm.